Food Security in Southern African
Cities: Conditions and Prospects
Bruce Frayne
Outline
• The ‘invisible crisis’
• Responses to urban food insecurity
• AFSUN 11 city urban food security
baseline survey findings
Food Security - the ‘big issues’
• 25,000 people die every day from hunger and related
causes
• 3 billion people malnourished (poverty)
• 3 billion more people by 2050
• +40% of agricultural land and ocean resources
degraded
• Climate change is upon us
Sources: FAO, IFPRI, UNFPA, UNEP
World Population Growth Projection
10
Population in Billions
9
8
7
6
5
Least Developed
4
Most Developed
3
2
1
0
1950
1975
2000
2025
2050
Why urban food security?
human future is
urban
population growth
greatest in
poorest regions
locus of poverty
shifting to urban
areas
health dependent
on food security
essential basic
need (survival)
chronic illness
greatest in cities
current agroindustrial model
unsustainable
rural - urban
interdependence
and food system
continuum
cross-cutting
multi-sectoral and
multi-disciplinary
The Invisible Crisis
• World Food Summits in 1996 and 2002 (and MDG No. 1)
made commitment to reducing no of undernourished
people (800 million) by 50% by 2015
• 2006 Mid-Term Review of Committee on World Food
Security found “progress has been negligible.”
• 2009, following global food price hikes and world
economic crisis, FAO estimates number exceeds 1
billion
 2030 – Africa’s urban population exceeds the rural
 National growth rates: Urban = 3-5% p.a.
Rural = 0-2% p.a.
700
SADC will be 77% urban by 2050
600
Million
500
400
Rural
300
200
Urban
100
Estimates
Projections
0
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
2010
2020
Source: World Population Prospects: The 2009 Revision,
http://esa.un.org/wup2009/unup/
2030
Urban Poverty +40%
Country
Urban growth Rate
(%)
Urban Poverty (%)
Botswana
6
30
Lesotho
4
46
Malawi
6
54
Mozambique
6
62
Namibia
4
40
South Africa
4
40
Swaziland
6
66
Zambia
4
52
Zimbabwe
5
70
Mean UGR = 5%
Mean UP = 51%
Source: World Population Prospects: The 2009 Revision, http://esa.un.org/wup2009/unup/
3. RESPONSES TO URBAN FOOD INSECURITY
Global Responses
…the world is urbanizing at a fast pace and it will not be long before a
greater part of developing country populations is living in large cities.
Therefore, urban food security and its related problems should also be
placed high on the agenda in the years to come (FAO Executive Director,
Jacques Diouf, 2006)
The phenomenon of urbanization, which will be one of the strongest social
forces in the coming years… One major challenge will be how to provide
adequate quantities of nutritious and affordable food for more urban
inhabitants, with less water, land and labour (FAO 25th Regional
Conference on Africa, Nairobi, 2008)
There is an urgent need to collect evidence on, and monitor, the food and
nutrition security situation of the urban poor, recognizing the complexity
involved given the mobility of the urban poor within and across cities. (
Executive Boards of UNDP/UNFPA, UNICEF and WFP, 2009)
CANADA-AFRICA PARTNERSHIP RESPONSE
• AFRICAN FOOD SECURITY URBAN NETWORK (AFSUN)
established in 2008
• Initial funding from CIDA University Partners in
Cooperation and Development (UPCD) Tier One
Program
• Partnership between 6 Canadian universities, 11
African universities, major NGOs and municipal
governance networks
Lusaka
Blantyre
Harare
Bulawayo
Gaborone
Windhoek
Maputo
Manzini
Johannesburg
Durban
Cape Town
Maseru
TRAINING / RESEARCH
SOUTH AFRICA –
Cape Town, Durban, Johannesburg
CIDA
PARTNERSHIP
BRANCH
UNIVERSITY OF CAPE TOWN (LEAD)
WITS UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU NATAL
BOTSWANA – Gaborone
UNIVERSITY OF BOTSWANA
CANADA
LESOTHO – Maseru
QUEENS
RYERSON
CALGARY
GUELPH
UWO
UW
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF LESOTHO
MALAWI – Blantyre
UNIVERSITY OF MALAWI
POLICY
Municipal Development Partnership
(MDPESA)
South African Cities Network (SACN)
MOZAMBIQUE – Maputo
EDUARDO MONDLANE UNIVERSITY
NAMIBIA – Windhoek
UNIVERSITY OF NAMIBIA
SWAZILAND – Manzini
COMMUNITY
Care Southern Africa
Food and Trees for Africa
Idasa
ABC Ulwazi
UNIVERSITY OF SWAZILAND
ZAMBIA - Lusaka
UNIVERSITY OF ZAMBIA
ZIMBABWE - Harare
UNIVERSITY OF ZIMBABWE
AFSUN Objectives
Goal
To increase the capacity of SADC
universities, municipal governments and
community agents to enhance urban food
security in major SADC cities
Purpose To create a dynamic regional partnership
network to work collaboratively on
enhancing urban food security in the SADC
AFSUN Activity Streams
Applied
Research
Capacity
Building
UFS Baseline
Survey – 11 cities
Program in Urban
Food Security
(PUFS) at UCT
raising awareness
research projects
on key themes
bursaries
policy
engagement/UFS
strategies
demand/supply
driven
graduate research
in-service short
courses
(professionals
and community
agents)
Policy Support
build policy
capacity
strengthen intergovernmental &
multi-stakeholder
cooperation
Community
Interventions
inventory & needs
assessment
training
workshops to
evaluate program
impacts/outcome
community radio
programs
AFSUN Urban Food Security Baseline Survey
2008-9
• 11 cities, 9 SADC countries
• Pro-poor focus: target poor households in each city
• 6,500 households and 28,700 individuals
• Standardised survey questionnaire
• Internationally validated food security scales
(FANTA)
Major Findings
1. Levels of Urban Household Food Insecurity
77% chronically food insecure
Household Food Security Status for 11 Cities
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
77%
Food secure
Food insecure
Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning
(months in past year)
12
10
8
4 months
without
6
4
Food secure
2
Food insecure
0
Major Findings
Food Sources for Urban Households
Reliance on informal/coping sources > food insecurity
Household Sources of Food by Household Food Security Status (%)
Urban Agriculture
Proportion Households Sourcing Food from Urban Agriculture
Food Transfers: Transfers > for food insecure
households
Food Transfers to Urban Households (% receiving)
84
28
16
Food secure
Food insecure
Total Transfers
Major Findings
Impact of Food Prices on Urban
Household Food Security
Food Prices: 78% ‘going without’
www.afsun.org
Looking to the future of food security in Africa
Small-scale farming?
Urban livelihoods?
Migration in sample (%)
Our urban future – food security will be
resolved in the towns and cities of the world
Yet despite the evidence…
The global paradigm still
ignores food as an urban
issue
12 thematic areas